Bent Yukon Traditional Cache
Greatland Reviewer: Hello bentcompass:
This cache page has been archived due to the lack of response to one or more prior Reviewer Note(s) about issue(s) with the cache. If you would like to have the cache unarchived, please contact me through my profile as soon as possible before another cache gets placed nearby.
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Greatland Reviewer
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On the North Bank of the Mighty Yukon River
My son and I placed this cache en route to the Arctic Circle 7/31/2010. The river was wide and fast, carrying lots of debris from the winter melt. We took a water sample to add to our fledgling collection of samples from the world’s great rivers. I’ve been meaning to start that for years, so it seemed fitting the Yukon should be the first. I’d seen it 24 years ago after college when I visited my friend Matt Sweetsir in Ruby, worked at his step-dad’s gold mine, and built a wood-haul raft with a friend of his and floated down the Yukon. What an adventure that was.
We rode up river from Ruby 100 miles or so to Carl’s winter camp. After collecting wood all day, we built a raft of floater tree trunks (like thick phone poles) and stacked several cords of wood on it. We lashed his 18 foot aluminum skiff to it and set off down river. The first day of drifting back to Ruby was fine, but the second day we had a bit of a windstorm, and the swells tore into the raft. Luckily, they pushed all the word back into shore. We spent the day rebuilding the raft, collecting the wood (which was soaked and heavier), and made camp, collapsing in exhaustion. Later that evening we struck camp and set out for a night drift.
Carl set up a pot-belly stove on the skiff and something of a lean-to, and it was a good thing. It was about 35 degrees out there, and began to drizzle. It kept up all night, and Carl kept the pot-belly glowing. We polished off a bottle of Courvoisier VSOP my brother had given me for graduation. I loaded it with a note (thanking my brother Jim, who had not been able to make his Alaska trip), and tossed it into the river. It floated with us for hours, but eventually disappeared into the darkness.
Long about 2 AM the drizzle got harder and it started to feel pretty cold. Carl and I got closer and closer to the stove, but it was hard to stay warm. We took to placing our wet leather gloves directly on the stove pipe until the heat became unbearable with sizzling. Letting go of the pipe, our gloves would steam for a few minutes before becoming cold again. We did this over and over again, and it was just enough to keep us warm and amused through the night.
Some time before the gloaming – 3:30 or so, we came into range of Ruby. It had stopped raining and the skies had cleared. I think there may have been aurora – it was up there most every night. It was cold though, and the air was brisk. The sled dogs of Ruby – probably 200 of them, caught our scent a few miles out and began howling to greet us. There’s nothing quite like a sky like that, and the sound of dogs howling for you, lost in the darkness of a river like the Yukon.
This cache is placed near the only bridge ever built to cross the Yukon, on the north end. I hope you enjoyed the story.
Update: Congrats to Leipert for FTF!!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Va jbbqf, arne tbbq fvmrq ebpx, jvgu fznyyre ebpxf ba gbc
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